Orthodox Lent begins with the service of Forgiveness Vespers, which we will hold at the Chapel this Sunday following lunch after our normal Sunday services (around 12:30 PM). This is an extremely moving service, that allows us to start fresh with everyone, having asked and been asked for forgiveness from everyone in the parish, as we begin the Great Fast. We will be having Compline with the Great Canon of St Andrew during the first week of Lent (2/19 – 2/22), and will begin Friday (2/23) with our Lenten midweek services (Lenten 9th Hour with the reading from the Ladder of Divine Ascent, Lenten Typica, and Lenten Vespers), which will be served on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the Great Fast. Other services will he held as listed on our Calendar.

We will be hosting the mission’s rector, Archimandrite Maximos of the Brotherhood of St Dionysios the Areopagite, on the third Sunday of Great Lent (3/11), the Sunday of the Holy Cross. Archimandrite Maximos is bringing with him the Brotherhood’s relic of the True Cross of the Lord for the faithful to venerate. He will also be with us the following Tuesday (3/13) for the mission’s patronal feast. We invite everyone to attend!

Remember that Great Lent is the most spiritually important season of the Church year. It is incumbent on us to attend as many of the services offered so that we can purify ourselves with prayer and fasting, so that we may more fully enter into the joy of the Lord on Holy Pascha.